With the recording industry selling fewer artists to the masses and creating more "name-brands" to dominate the field, the question has to be asked... where do "stars" go when they've been dismissed by the big guns who once owned them?

Unequivocal statements are not my style. Nevertheless, I can't overstate this. Your music career will make many unreasonable demands on your life.

After my last relationship ended, it was difficult, but I did, however, gain two important things from her: a nice wardrobe and an introduction to the incredible music of Griffin House.

What we are is full-time musicians in an age when most of the traditional outlets for musicians to make money have gone the way of the cassette tape. Clubs that pay real money? Rare for unknowns. Wedding band work? Lost to DJs.

When trying to think of a way to describe Matthew Perryman Jones' voice, I keep thinking of the German word gemütlich. It's a state of warmth and comfortableness -- think an amaretto, a fire, and a lazy dog when there's a whiteout outside and ice on the windows.

With a chorus that spikes with the anthemic "...this is not my home," "Take My Time" is a song about time, love, and finding, well, home.

Early in the evening, Leonard Cohen adjusted the angle on his fedora, looked out at the audience and said, "I don't know when we'll meet again, but tonight I promise I'll give you everything I've got." And he did, including an encore of six more songs.

For about two years, I was hoping that Matt Hires' album Take Us To The Start was going to follow a similar trajectory as John Mayer's Room For Squares, steadily building a story then finally breaking after good word of mouth, reviews and critics' endorsements.

Another Country made me hopeful about a singer I knew nothing about. Tift Merritt's songs were smart and soft and deep, and she had a honey voice that a country singer would kill for, and, on the CD cover, she was beautiful in a girl-next-door way.

Jackson Browne is among the very few members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen, who still produce songs that can stand with their earlier work.

"Ocean" has become a live performance centerpiece, the live videos online culled from various festivals and sessions have garnered more than 25 million views.

At first listen, Emeli Sandé's voice is stark and urgent, especially in uptempo tracks. Her distinctive voice can rattle the senses and, in the very next breath, soothe any emotion.

It is difficult -- well nigh impossible really -- to cover a career like that of Chip Taylor's in just a few hundred words.